Review by Lars Lindahl (larsattacks@mail.com)
"Screwed" (2000) * (out of four)
Written and Directed by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewksi.
Starring Norm MacDonald, Dave Chapelle, Elaine Stritch, Sherman Hemsley, Daniel Benzali, and Danny Devito
The most popular trend of the last couple of years has been the twist ending. Watching one of these movies, everything seems to make sense until suddenly you are blown away by an unexpected surprise. When the film ends, there is a moment of confusion, then recollection, then some more confusion, then possibly a second viewing for clarification. This is a description of an ideal twist that perfects everything it sets out to do and more. Good surprises make movies fun to watch. Then there are the bad twists. You either know what is going to happen ten minutes into the movie (I'm talking about you Reindeer Games) or you did not guess the ending because it is so outrageously stupid. Screwed perfectly suits the latter description. What starts out as a dumb guilty pleasure which should be fun to mock with a group of friends ends with a complex finale with way too much going on.
By the writers of Man on the Moon and The People Vs. Larry Flynt, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski leave Milos Forman behind and take a stab at film directing. Whoops. Screwed is an inane Christmas Carol gone berserk with few genuine laughs and many acting embarrassments. Norm MacDonald stars as Willard Filmore, a hard working chauffeur who just wants a little respect from his rich, old, insidious boss, Miss Crock (Elaine Stritch). When he overhears her plans to fire him on Christmas day, Willard is convinced by his best friend Rusty (Dave Chapelle) to kidnap Crock's beloved dog and hold it for a ransom of one million dollars. Too excited to pay any attention, the hapless losers' plan goes awry when the dog escapes and returns home. Now Crock thinks Willard has been kidnapped and the two friends, realizing they can make even more money, decide to stage the fake kidnapping. Of course, everything that could go wrong does.
The first forty-five minutes of Screwed is harmless entertainment - a guilty pleasure that should be enjoyably bad. But the convoluted script eventually builds into a disaster that is impossible to bear. The more idiotic these characters get, the more reckless the script becomes. At one point, I wanted to get out of my seat and yell at these characters: "No, you idiot!" I'm not just talking about Willard and Rusty, who were extremely annoying, I'm also talking about the cops in this film. A monkey could have solved this case within an hour but these guys (headed by Murder One's Daniel Benzali) were just too clueless to forgive. They give real cops bad names.
Also poor Danny Devito apparently does not know how to turn down a role these days. Looking almost identical to his Penguin in Batman: Returns, every time he appeared on the screen I had to shake my head in disbelief. He just didn't belong in this movie. MacDonald and Chapelle are veterans at these kinds of movies but Devito made the film much worse than it already was, gross out humor is certainly not his forte.
If you're a fan of Norm MacDonald's other chaotic comedy, Dirty Work, you might actually love this near-sequel. Otherwise, don't get screwed out of your hard-earned money.
Grade: * (out of four)
Lars Attacks! A teenager attacks past and present cinema http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/larsattacks
larsattacks@mail.com (c) 2000 Lars Lindahl
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